Component casting is typically used when large quantities of identical products are being produced or when design specifications require intricate internal geometry that machining apparatus such as mills, drill presses, and/or lathes cannot access. Highly stressed components such as turbine blades in gas turbine engines require casting techniques that minimize localized stress caused by internal geometric features. Turbine blades, and the like, have internal hollow portions to reduce the weight of the blade and provide passages for cooling air flow. Cooling air flow is required because the external operating temperatures of the exhaust gas flow exceed the melting temperature of metal alloys used in gas turbine engines.
Turbine blades with cooling passages and stress reducing methods are known in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,533,547 issued to Anding et al. on Mar. 18, 2003, discloses a turbine blade having internal space through which coolant fluid is guided and in which stiffening ribs are formed to reinforce and support the external walls. Coolant screens that reduce the cooling of the stiffening ribs are arranged in front of the stiffening ribs in order to reduce thermal stresses.
Cores for casting turbine blades are typically made of ceramic composite or the like. Casting cores have solid portions separated by hollow portions. The solid portions of the core form hollow portions in the final product, likewise the hollow portions of the core are where the metal portions are formed in the final product. The solid portions of the casting core will fracture if not supported adequately during the manufacturing process. To prevent core fracture, support elements or “tie features” are designed in the core to extend between adjacent solid portions. These support elements necessarily produce through apertures in the internal walls of the turbine blade. It would be desirable to design these elements to provide adequate mechanical support to the core, while at the same time minimizing operating stress that the resulting through apertures cause in the turbine blade.